Educational toy



w. J. FLETCHER 2,197,976 I EDUCATIONAL TOY April 23, 1940.

Filed March 17, 1939 Mr W - f w vm ATTO R N EYS Patented Apr. 23, 1940EDUCATIONAL TOY Walter-J. Fletcher, Albany, N. Y., assignor to' I TheEmbossing Company, Albany N. Y., a corporation of New York ApplicationMarch 1-1, 1939, Serial No. 262*,395"

(c1. ass-29) 1 Claim.

This invention relates to educational toys of the kind designed todevelop coordination between the mental and physical faculties ofchildren while providing amusement. The toy com- S prises in general aboard having apertures for -which pegs are provided. The pegs aredesigned to be driven through the apertures in which they fit iaiilytightly. A"mallet is provided for accomplishing this and a child mayhammer away 10 at will upon a peg and gradually advance it through itsaperture.

It has been a common practice to provide cylindrical pegs cut from dowelrods at right angles to the axis of the rods. The apertures in the 1Sboardare plain cylindrical holes so that a peg is always held in theboard solong as any portion of it extends within an aperture. With suchconstruction the upper end of the peg can not be struck with a malletafter it has passed into its go aperture. Without the intermediary or adriit pin or another peg, the peg cannot be removed from engagement withthe boardwithout pulling the peg from its aperture. It is the object ofthe.

present invention to provide a toy of this nature g having suchconstruction as to enable thecomplete removal of a peg byhammerblowsdelivered directly upon the uppermost end of the peg. 'I'his' laccomplish by the relieving or the tight fit between the peg and theaperture so as 30 to release frictional attachment therebetween. at

or just ,prlor to theadvance oi the peg to a position in which itsuppermost end is fiush with I v I other end of .the'peg, theseslotsbeing at right 'the upper surface or the board. Another object ofthe invention isto provide 35 a peg board and peg construction which,while retaining all or its qualities having to do withteaching physicaland mental coordination, pro,- vides further amusement and attractionbecause.

of. the capabilitybf knocking the pegs through 1 the board asthesuccessful culmination of a continuous series of lows.

. other objects and advantages will appear hereinaiter iromthedescription' and drawing.

lnthedrawingy w mg. 1 .is a perspective view of the foyer Fig. 2 isa'section on line 2-1.

I have illustrated my invention in conjunction with a board having eightapertures arranged in that my invention isnot limited to the number ofapertures and pegs utilized or to their arrangement. In toys designedfor promoting coordination between. the physical and mental Iacul tiesin children, the pegs may be of different colore and the pegs andapertures may' be oi ditbe engageable only with apertures orcorrespondto withstand mallet blows.

pegs, they may be slotted axially with the slots vide elasticity whichmakes allowance for the rewith the wall oi an aperture when the peg hasseries of twos and tours, but it is to be understood I from the endr'cfthe peg which is at least equal to ierent sizes so that the. pegs pfanyone size will I ing size. So far as the presentinvention is con;cerned, the number of pegs, their colors and the size of the pegs andapertures are all discretion- '5 ary factors which may-be availed of,depending upon the attraction qualities desired or the degree ofinstruction it is desired to impart. In the toy illustrated, all of thpegs m are fashioned to engage with any one of .the apertures II in theboard l2.- .The board is supported by 1 standards l3 and I4 in a mannerto provide enough space beneath the board for permitting the pegs tofall through as they are released from the apertures in the board. Theboard may be made of wood and should be substantial enough The aperturesmay be provided by drilling holes through the board.

Each peg is designed to fit tightly in the holes, but the fit is such asto yield to blows from a 90 mallet i5 in the hand of, a child. Aconvenient manner of constructing the pegs is to cut them from woodendowel rods. The dowel rods are so chosen that the maximumnornialdiameter of, the pegs will be slightly oversize in respect tothe'diameter of the holes. In order to augment the natural compressionproperty of the wooden intersecting the axis of the pegs, but plain um Islotted pegs may be used, if desired.

As may beseen in Fig.1, a slot I6 is cut from one end or the peg, and aslot i1 is cut from the I angles to each other and extending aboutthreequarters of the lengthoi' a peg. The slots pro- 350 duction ingirth of a peg which is necessary for its passage through an associatedaperture.

In order that a D 8 may be driven through the board without interruptionoi the blows being delivered upon it, I. have so formed the'end or thepeg that it will become free from engagement been advanced almostthrough the board. This I accomplish by reducing the diameter of the pegnear its end to a degree' and for a length sumcient to tree the peg fromthe aperture when its uppermost end has been advanced to a positionapproximately fiushwith the uppermost side of thgboarl- "f v I havefound that to taper the ends of the pegs is a convenient way ofaccomplishing this. The taper or other form or girth reduction should besuch that it provides a reduced girth at a distance,

the thickness of the board or the length of the wall of the aperturewhich engages the peg. As illustrated in Fig. 2, this reduced girth isin a radial plane located at 0-11. Its axial distance from the end 20 isgreater than the length of the wall 2| of the aperture through which thepeg has been driven. The result of this construction is that when thepeg has been advanced through the aperture until the plane H is justabove the. under surface of the board, a final hammer blow will dislodgethe peg from further frictional engagement with the wall of theaperture. It will then drop of its own accord below the board from whichposition it is again immediately available for use.

It will be appreciated that the frictional contact between the peg andthe wall of an aperture will be less between the large base of thetruncated cone and the plane aa, but that the large base and plane aamay be made to coincide if desired.

It is preferable that both ends of the peg be similarly truncated sothat the ends be interchangeable. peg may be readily started in anaperture before. any hammering is done so that even a one year old childwould not be confronted with difilculty in this maneuver. A peg is shownin the starting position at the right-hand side of Fig. 2. In thisposition the plane aa coincides with the uppermost surface of the board.Another advantage of truncating both ends of the peg is that suchconstruction prevents injury to the portion of the peg which engages anaperture. Any burr developed about the boundary of the .end surfacebeing hammered cannot extend out- This has the advantage that the wardof the boundary sufflciently to impair its introduction into an aperture.or its passage therethrough.

What is claimed is:

An educational toy comprising a board having a plurality of holespassing therethrough, a plurality of pegs having portions intermediatetheir ends which are frictionally engageable within said holes butcapable of passage through said holes under influence of force appliedto thepegs, said pegs being provided with laterally reduced end-portionsbeyond the limits of said frictionally engageable intermediate portionsand with no lateral dimension thereof as great as the lateral dimensionof said intermediate portions, each of said reduced end-portions havinga striking surface and a bordering surface non-engage-' meansforsupporting said board at sufficient elevation to permit a pe to dropfrom the board when it has been advanced to a position in which itsintermediate frictionally engageable portion is no longer in frictionalengagement with the wall of its associated hole and the reduced endportion comes opposite the wall of the hole and frictional restraintupon the free movement of the peg through the hole is relieved.

WALTER J. FLETCHER.

